Chronicles of Team Ace
by Sytex
Summary: Awakening in an unknown world, Nick Sintari is lost in more ways than one. With his memory gone and body altered, he is no longer who he was. Mira Davidson, a local to Treasure Town with a mysterious past, guides him down the right path.
1. Intro

**Intro:** So, now that I have a basic understanding of my current situation, I may as well start a journal. Inside his journal I am going to keep tabs on the everyday goings on in this "Treasure Town" place. I absolutely abhor amnesia; I can't remember much of anything about who I am. The only two things I can recall are that I was previously a human and that my name is Nick. Oh well, amnesia is never truly permanent, so hopefully I'll be able to rectify my loss rather quickly. In any case, allow me to recap a bit on how I came to be in my current situation. I'm going to try and write this like a novel, so I may possibly publish my chronicles as well as any findings all the while keeping it interesting.

**Yesterday:** I remember a storm. The churning, pounding, black waves tossed me, my raft, and another person back and forth. The rain drops were like bullets, and lightning bolts tore rifts across the sky. The raft I was clinging to was rickety and threatened to break apart with each slam of the waves. The person adjacent to me had my right hand in a death grip, trying to keep out of the violent waters. I couldn't make out distinct features of the other person, but I know they certainly weren't human, because they had three fingers and _scales_. I recall shouting in concern to my friend, "Hey! Are you all right?" My friend gave no reply, but I knew they were still with me. Their grip faltered a bit, "No! Don't let go!" I shouted. They reaffirmed their grip, "Please! Hold on!" But in a split second, they lost their grip, and we both drifted away from each other. I cried out in fear, but before I could do anything else, it all went black. My body tried and tried to wake me up, succeeding only momentarily, and catching a glimpse of a starlit sky, before I fell back into the void of unrest.

**4 hours ago:** I next awoke to somebody shouting nearby. "Are you okay?" I was very surprised the moment I opened my eyes. The voice I heard was coming from a Chikorita. From the tone of the voice, I gathered it was a girl. I groaned slightly, and she allowed me to use her body as a crutch so I could stand up. But as soon as I was on my feet, I nearly took a tumble backwards, I felt very off balance. The Chikorita caught me before I fell though. "Are you all right?" She repeated. I let out a slightly exasperated yes, and she managed a breath of relief. "It's good to see you're awake," she said as I turned to her. I looked at her for a second, this Chikorita seemed quite lean and her eyes had a distinct sparkle in the ruby red irises. Her thin leaf hung over her left eye a bit, the look just screaming out her gender. I took it upon myself to have a look around; I was on a beach, the serene sapphire waves lapping at my feet and a steel colored, craggy outcropping to my left with many Krabby blowing bubbles into the now twilit sky. I had no idea where I was or how I'd gotten there.

The Chikorita spoke to me again, "You weren't moving at all, I was really worried!" She paused for a second, then resumed, "Do you have any idea how you ended up unconscious there?" Of course I knew the answer, but I didn't want to go into it at the moment, so I hesitantly told her I was caught in the storm last night, no details. She obviously wanted to know more, but she seemed really good with understanding my tone of voice meant. She pressed no further. She decided to introduce herself. "Well, I'm Mira. Glad to meet you," she said, extending her foreleg. I reached out to shake her foot (that sounds a bit strange, I'm sure), and I introduced myself.

"My name's Nick. It's great to meet you Mira," When I looked down at my arm, I hid my surprise at the fact that it was orange and scaly, as well as the fact it was a bit stubby and had three claw-like fingers. I looked down inconspicuously to see my legs were similar in shape, orange, scaly, and stubby with three clawed toes on each reptilian foot. I shouted my thoughts out loud by mistake, "What happened to me? I'm not human!" Realizing my mistake, I clapped my hands to my mouth. But that didn't stop Mira.

"Why do you say you're 'not human'? Of course you're not, you look like a normal Charmander to me!" I had been withholding the idea of having been transformed, but I had too much proof that said otherwise. It was extremely shocking. I looked back to see I even had the flame-tipped tail... This little bit, the whole transformation, I had no recollection of anything altering me; but maybe it had something to do with that storm...

Mira laughed lightly, "You're a bit odd. Are you trying to pull some kind of trick on me?" Her incredulous demeanor was more amusing than insulting; a cocked brow and a gentle smirk.

I shook my head, "No, I'm serious. I honestly was human before, I think."

Mira gave me an odd look, "You don't have the look of somebody who's lying..." She paused. "All right, I'll play along. You don't seem to be a bad guy anyways," her soft giggle was enough to bring a smile to my face. "Sorry to make you feel doubted. It's just that more and more bad Pokemon are showing up lately. Lots of thugs and aggressive Pokemon. A bit of the law has deteriorated," she continued. And as if to emphasize her point, entirely out of nowhere, a brash Koffing and Zubat came from behind her; the Koffing tackling her hard enough to make her fall. That Koffing made a sarcastic apology, and eyed a small fragment of stone that lay where Mira had been. Obviously, Mira didn't take that attack too well and yelled at the Koffing. "Hey! What was that for?" She was trembling a bit in doing this; her assertiveness falling shorter than it might have otherwise.

The Zubat let out a shrill laugh, "Can't you tell?" it asked. "We wanted to mess with you! Can't face up to us, can you?" It challenged. That irritating bully demeanor was made even further annoying by this Zubat's shrillness; none could gather how badly I wished to pummel it and hurl it into the ocean. Mira seemed taken aback by the Zubat's challenge; taking a step back and clenching her teeth. "That's yours isn't it?" The Zubat asked, pointing a tendril-like leg at the stone fragment. Mira gasped, taking in the scenario. "Sorry kiddo, we'll take that!" The Zubat, fiendish now in my eyes, went to collect the stone fragment in his jaws. Mira let out a shrill scream of shock and her eyes began to water.

The brutish Koffing laughed at her, "Not gonna make a move to take it back? What's the matter? Too scared?" He taunted. "I didn't expect you'd be _that_ big of a coward!" The Koffing turned to the Zubat, "Let's get out of here." Zubat compiled a muffled sentence that was hard to interpret, but I assume it was a rude farewell. The two thieves then headed off into a nearby cave and disappeared inside.

Mira groaned solemnly, turning to face the outcropping, "What should I do?" I looked at her eyes; tears were distorting her irises. "That's my personal treasure. It means everything to me," she paused. "If I lose that..." More tears began to well up in her eyes. But in an instant, her demeanor changed from solemn to determined. "No! I have to hurry! I've got to get it back!" She glanced back at me, "Would you be willing to help me, Nick?"

My response was unhesitating and purely instinctual, "Yes. And if I get to swat that aggravating Zubat and detonate his friend, extra treat."

Mira smirked and snickered; I couldn't help but smile myself. "Dark, but daring; I like that. I'll leave them open, just for you. Oh, but thank you! Let's go!" She cheered in determination; we both entered the cave with her leading.

**Inside Beach Cave:** The inside of the cave was surprisingly bright despite the late hour it was and the concealed corridors that formed it. I took in the surroundings; craggy and alight with luminescent cyan waters scattered sparsely about. Eventually we encountered a Shellos, but when I tried to approach it, I was attacked with a jet of water; I was amazed by how much it stung. Mira pulled me aside and finished off the Shellos herself. She managed to find it in herself to scold me, though I can understand; she sounded concerned. "Nick, you should attack! Like I said, the Pokemon around here have gotten quite agitated lately."

"Attack?" I asked. "With moves? How do I use moves?" I felt beyond stupid at that point, but I was honest.

Mira cocked a brow, "Other than items, what else would you attack with? A leaf; song and dance?"

I replied with a sarcastic quip. "I'd go more towards the leaf, song and dance isn't really my style." Mira gave me a look. "I'm kidding. But maybe you could explain to me as we go."

"Good idea," Mira agreed, snickering at my initial sarcasm. "Try to keep up." And thus, she begun her explanation of how I would go about using my moves, and the many useful items she knew about, as well as how to use them to their furthest extent. All the while, we toiled through corridor after corridor, and eventually, I figured out what I was doing. Soon, we reached a small alcove about four floors down (yes, _floors_, there are stairs in the cave).

On the far side, I could see those same Koffing and Zubat, that latter mention having released the rock fragment from his jaws. Mira shouted to get their attention, which made he thuggish duo whip around, I could see they had neither expected a dead end or for Mira to show up. The Koffing was first to respond to her presence, "Huh, if it isn't the little pansy we met earlier." Mira flinched a bit at his words, but stood firm.

Stepping forward a bit, she shouted at them vehemently, "Give me back my Relic Fragment! It's my personal treasure, it means the world to me!"

The Zubat oohed, his high pitched voice becoming more annoying than usual; I covered my ears - where I assumed them to be - and plastered an irritated expression on my face. "A treasure you say? Sounds like it's pretty valuable!"

"Definitely more valuable than I thought it would be, most likely," the Koffing smiled. "Maybe we could make a pretty hefty sale off this thing." the Koffing laughed, "All the more reason to keep it!"

Mira's eyes grew wide, shock apparent in them, her mouth formed a frown, "No! Give it back you... you... jerks!" I recognized she stifled herself; a nastier word had just been withheld.

The ever high pitched and annoying Zubat piped up again, "If you want it back so badly... Come and get it, pansy!" And with that, Zubat made a mad dash at Mira, trying to make a diversion so Koffing could land his attack. I intercepted Zubat's path, and swatted him out of the air and into the nearby tide pool, I smiled like a moron, but it was worth it to do so; it was a dream come true! He went down with one shot, Koffing on the other hand, landed a good hit on my side. I found myself flung to the ground harshly, sand gritting my teeth; I recuperated with minimal injury. In that time frame, Mira had begun to charge at the poisonous puffball with an overpowered tackle. It appeared she scored a serious critical hit, because that Koffing went _down_.

Both of them whined in pain, gathered themselves, then took off in fear, the Koffing shouting, "Don't think we won't be back!"

As they faded off into the distance, Mira returned her attention to the stone fragment (or Relic Fragment, as she'd called it), and as she collected it, her eyes lit up out of sheer joy. "Ohhh, I'm so glad to have this back! I only got it back because you agreed to help me!" Tears began to well up in her eyes again, "Thank you so much, Nick!" She ran up to me and hugged me with her forelegs.

I quickly hugged her as well, patting her on the back, "It's no problem Mira. I can't turn a blind eye on somebody in need." It felt... odd; but in a good way. With the mission complete, she led me back out of the Beach Cave.

**On the Beach:** Outside, Mira thanked me again. I couldn't help but smile, it felt so good to see somebody so grateful. She moved forward a bit and set down her treasure, "This is what they stole. It's supposedly a fragment of some ancient relic, so I call it my Relic Fragment. I happened to get it when I was very young, from an older Lapras. I hold it near and dear to my heart, as my one treasure." Mira paused for a second, then continued. "You see," she said, turning out to the sea, "I've always loved legends and lore. I get really excited every time I hear tales from the past! Don't you feel the same way?"

I was surprised, she shared one of my key traits. "Of course! I love tales of the past, as well as legends that accompany the many regions of the world." A thought raced through my head, "wow, perfect girlfriend material." But I had to dismiss that, as I hardly knew her, that, and I didn't know how long I'd be a Pokemon.

"Wow, really? That's so cool!" Her eyes lit up again. "All those uncharted areas, veiled in darkness, sealed by time, beyond the distance of the skies... Imagine the treasures one could find in them! No less, the history! Wouldn't it be amazing to make the history books with a discovery? I've always dreamed of accomplishing something like that."

"I see you and I are very much in agreement," I responded with a smile. "I'd like to have my name heard. And history itself is already great enough, haha!" I flaunted my confidence in an amusing manner, as I noticed Mira chuckling to herself.

Reasserting her intent, she continued. "Yeah... My Relic Fragment may just lead me to something like that! Just look at the design on the flat side, that has to mean something!" She flipped the stone over. Looking at it, I saw a strange insignia. It had a small circle at its middle with four wispy tails extending from it on four of the infinite sides, and behind the circle and wisps were some wing-like designs. got a strange feeling from it, like I had seen it once before. I put the feeling aside. "See?" Mira continued. "I'm sure this Relic Fragment is the key to some legendary place! That's what I feel anyways." She proceeded to pick the fragment up again and stored it in a small bag around her neck, which I'd paid no heed to earlier. "That's why I want to join an exploration team... I want to discover what exactly it is that my relic fragment fits into," she smiled. But the smile quickly fell, "I did try to join up as an exploration apprentice earlier today, just before I found you. But... I chickened out..." Mira paused. Then looked back at me, "What about you Nick? What are you going to do now? You said you had no recollection of yourself other than your name and that you'd been a human once while we were in the cave... Do you have anywhere you can stay...?"

I was silent in thought; already pondering her inquiry in depth. "If not, could I ask you a huge favor? Would you be willing to join an exploration team with me? I think we'd make a great team, Nick. So will you? Please?"

My mind began racing; I was being recruited so suddenly? I didn't even know what an exploration team was... A huge feeling of indecision overwhelmed me momentarily. I collected my thoughts; seeing as I had nowhere to go and nowhere to stay. I chose my answer easily at that point. "I think it would be best if I go with you, Mira. If I stick around, I might be able to find out who I was and how I came to be as I am. Definitively yes, I will form a team with you." I smiled warmly; I had a very good feeling about this.

As soon as I voiced my answer, Mira's eyes went wide and her expression went agape, "You will? Oh, thank you!" Her excitement was even more than it had been when I'd agreed to help her get her relic fragment. "We'll be great! Let's make this work! We have to get to Wigglytuff's guild and sign up as apprentices first. If we want to be first-rate, that's the best option," Mira explained with jubilant enthusiasm. "I'm sure the training will be a bit tough, but it'll be worth it!" With that, Mira led me to the Guild as confident as can be.

**Wigglytuff's Guild;** "All right, let's go for it!" Mira cheered. In front of us both was an odd tent shaped like, what else but, a Wigglytuff. At our feet was a bamboo grating; I peered down to see it was a long way to the bottom. Mira took a step onto the grating, and almost immediately, I heard a shout down below that made Mira jump.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected! Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" The voice paused. "The footprint is Chikorita's!"

After a minute of silence, another voice sounded, "You may **enter**! Someone's with you! So get that stranger to stand up **there**!"

Mira stepped off the grating and turned back to me, "Nick, I think they meant you. Stand over that grate."

I complied, gesturing with a simple nod, and stood on the grate. Again, that first voice shouted the same lines again. But... "The footprint is... The footprint is... um..." The other Pokemon tried to get the attention of the first, and after a bit of questioning, that first Pokemon finally got it right. "Maybe Charmander's! Maybe Charmander's!"

"**Maybe**?" The other seemed befuddled by the response.

"B-but, it's not a footprint you usually see around here!" The first stammered, slightly perturbed.

"Checking the footprints of visiting Pokemon... That's your job? Isn't it Marshall?"

"Yeah, but, I don't know what I don't know," he said, a bit quieter.

Mira looked at me, "Are they arguing?" I shrugged.

"Sorry for making you **wait**. While it's true you don't normally see Charmander around these parts, you don't seem to be bad at all. You may **enter**!" With that extended proliferation, the gate covering the opening of the Wigglytuff tent opened with a rumble.

As I stepped forward, I noticed Mira standing still. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I-I'm just so nervous..." She seemed to shake the feeling momentarily. "Okay, let's go in." I let her go first, and we proceeded down a ladder and entered a room that was full of other Pokemon. "Wow! Look at all these other Pokemon! Are they all Exploration teams?" Mira exclaimed.

"Probably are," I said simply. I looked around and took in the sight of all these Pokemon conversing and moving about. The room was rugged; carved out of stone and soil, but it seemed pretty sophisticated for such simple architecture.

"Excuse me!" A new voice called from behind. Both Mira and I turned to see a strange Chatot hopping towards us. "You two are the ones who just came in, correct?"

Mira nodded, "Yeah. Me and my friend wanted to join this guild as an exploration team!"

"That would be a good assumption. Anyways, I'm Morgan! I'm the Pokemon in the know around here. Guild Intelligence. The Guildmaster's right-hand man!" He introduced himself. He turned away a bit and began talking to himself, apparently surprised by Mira wanting to join the guild.

Mira gave Morgan a solemn glance, "Excuse me, but is the training really that severe?"

Morgan whipped around, a nervous look on him, "Well, no! Not in the slightest! The training is easy as can be!" Mira and I looked at one another with cocked brows. Morgan cleared his throat to continue and regain our attention, "Okay! Well, let's get your Exploration team registered! Please, follow me; right this way." Morgan proceeded to hop away, us tagging along in expectation. He led us down yet another ladder to a second sub-level. "In case you're wondering, this is the floor where, mainly, the apprentices work. The Guildmaster's chamber is this way," Morgan pointed a wing to an area on the left side of the ladder; and rounding the corner, that area was dressed with a door. "Come along, please."

Turning to follow, I saw a window on the far wall. The dim evening light was shimmering against the horizon, painting the surrounding area with a unique light that could not be ignored. "Wow, look at that. The view is beautiful from here!" I expressed my impression without restraint; how could I refrain from complimenting the exuberant colored skies? A pink edged inferno with shaded black rimming to the copious but scattered clouds; the sun just touching the lip of the oceanic horizon.

"Having the guild built into a cliff side lends some amazing views of the sea and the horizon. Now come on, the Guildmaster is just inside, remember your manners and be respectful at all times," Morgan explained as he took us into the room. The Guildmaster's Chamber was very colorfully decorated by many treasures and many curtains with the Wigglytuff insignia on it, but over all, the room was only moderate in size. On a rug near the room's back, the Guildmaster, a Wigglytuff, sat in a large, comfortable-looking chair. "Guildmaster," Morgan got Guildmaster's attention. "We have two aspiring Explorers here to register as apprentices."

After a bit of an awkward silence with the Guildmaster staring off into space, he started quickly and loudly, "Hiya!" His spontaneous movement and tone made both Mira and I jump; and his voice... didn't match him, to say the least. "I'm Byron! Guildmaster of the Wigglytuff Guild! You say you wanted to form an Exploration team?" Mira and I nodded rather gingerly; more so out of the awkwardness; but we recuperated after a few seconds more. "Then let's go for it! First thing we have to do is give your team a name! So tell me, what would you like your team to be known as?"

"A, a name?" Mira looked a bit flustered. "We didn't think about that..." She was right, I hadn't even considered a name for the team whatsoever. Mira continued, "What do you think would be a good name, Nick?"

It came to me in an instant, "Ace. Let's go with Team Ace! I mean, we did get back your personal treasure in a perfect fashion, one hit each on that Koffing and Zubat duo and they went down like paper doors."

"Ace...?" Mira paused to think. "Yeah, Team Ace! I love it!"

Byron's speaking again brought our attention back to him, "It's settled then. I'll register you as 'Team Ace!'" He pulled a piece of paper from a table at his left and proceeded to write on it. "Okay! You're now registered; Hoo, hah! From now on, you two are an official Exploration Team! I give you this in commemoration!" Byron grabbed something else from under that table; a mid-sized shoulder bag. "This is your Pokemon Exploration Team Kit! It's something that every Exploration Team needs! Quick, open it up." The two of us obliged, and opened up the bag. Inside, there were two badges with a round center and wings on either side of the circle, and a map. Pointing to the winged badges Byron addressed us again, "Those are your explorer badges! It's your official team identification! That wonder map," he continued, pointing at the furled parchment this time, "is truly convenient!" He moved his finger to the bag everything had come in. "And that's your treasure bag! You'll be using that to hold any of the items you pick up in dungeons. As you move up in the ranks as an Exploration Team, you'll be given a larger treasure bag. It's a great bag! Durable, and versatile! But hey, look in that big pocket inside the treasure bag."

Mira did as told and quickly got that glitter in her eyes. "Wow! A Special Band and a Blue Bow!" I was so lost.

"Yup," Byron nodded, "those two items are special! I'm sure they'll help you on your adventures!"

"Thank you!" Mira cheered.

"Thanks Byron!" I openly followed with a short bow that resembled more of a nod.

"No need for thanks. But, you're only apprentices now, so do your best to train!" His smile was warm, and his overall demeanor was not to belie that in the slightest.

"You can count on that!" Mira assured with confidence. "Right Nick?"

"For sure. Expect nothing short of excellence from us Guildmaster!" I pumped my arm and clenched my fist, displaying my own confidence in our team.

"That's just what I like to hear! Now, Morgan, it's late, if you will...?" Byron replied, addressing his assistant with a tilt of his head.

"Yes Guildmaster. You two," Morgan turned to us flatly, "follow me." We did follow, and Morgan led us into a corridor a mere three paces to the diagonal left from the Guildmaster's chamber. When we reached the very end of the rocky hall, there was an empty room with a curtain like those in the Guildmaster's Chamber to cover the entrance. "This," Morgan began, "is your room!" He pointed a wing to two straw beds set perfectly in the center.

Mira and I chose our respective beds, mine being farthest from the entrance curtain. "Great! We get beds!" She cheered.

Morgan piped up again, "You two will live here while you work for us. Things will start getting busy for you two tomorrow! So make sure to rest up! You'll have to rise early and start living up to our code! That's all. I hope to see you on time in the morning! That is all." Morgan then left the room.

Mira made a dainty yawn, "Hmm, I'm just now realizing how tired I am." She planted herself upon the bed and lay down to rest. "All right, good night Nick."

"'Night Mira," I replied quietly, and Mira closed her eyes. And that's exactly when I got started this event journal! My god, I have no clue how late it is, but it feels like I've been a while. Oh well, I'm actually pretty excited to be part of this Exploration team with Mira. I've been writing this forever it seems, and I really don't want this excitement to fade at all. A few minutes ago, Mira peeked over at me and noticed I was still awake.

"My heart's been racing all day today over ever little thing..." She began. "But I'm so glad I made myself come here. I thought Guildmaster would be intimidating, but he's so nice! I'm sure we're going to experience all sorts of things tomorrow, but I'm not scared at all. In fact, the opposite is true, I'm ecstatic about the adventures we're going to face!"

"Yeah..." I said. "I feel the same. Thank you for being so nice to me Mira, it's great to feel appreciated."

"Oh, you don't need to thank me. I can't leave somebody to struggle aimlessly. It was my pleasure," she affirmed. "Well, I'm still pretty sleepy. I'm going to try and nod off again. I'll see you in the morning."

"Likewise. Goodnight, again."

Mira yawned loudly and made a higher-pitched squeak to finish. "Goodnight..." she responded duly. I feel absolutely blessed to have befriended Mira. I mean, I show up out of nowhere, washed up on a beach, and she goes out of her way to help me. I owed it to her to get that treasure of hers back, but I can never repay her for her kindness; not now, not ever, I don't believe. But still, the question remains, who am I really? How did I morph into a Pokemon? Was that event with the raft in the storm real? Will I ever recover my memories? Well, I can't hassle myself with it now, I have to get some sleep.

========================================  
>Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky<br>Chronological Event Journal; Day 1: First Assignments

**Day 1: Wigglytuff Guild**

This morning was hardly even peaceful awakening; at first I thought I was waking up from a dream I had been having. But then came the realization that someone was shouting at me. "Hey! You two, **rise and shine!**"

I shuddered and moved my jaw to try and get the pain from the volume to fade; fleetingly so. _"Ugh... My ears... I think they broke..."_ I mused in agony; at this point it sounded as if an explosion was going off in my ears.

That same voice cried out again, further damaging my hearing. Whatever he was saying, I could not interpret any further, excluding the occasional quieter word; and even then it was very difficult to understand as my ears had started ringing. Loudly. Finally, the shouting stopped and whoever it was walked out of the room as if nothing had happened. I could barely hear Mira's first utterance, but after a few more seconds, I began to gather what she was saying more easily. "I could not understand him at all... Did he say something about- Oh my goodness! We overslept! I just remembered we signed up at as apprentices here yesterday! But that means..."

"Crap! We're late!" I leapt to my feet, with quite the degree of agility despite my unfamiliarity with this body. "Come on Mira, let's go find the other apprentices!" I bolted, with her right beside me.

The main chamber on the second sub-level was filled by the current guild members; lined up in two rows of four; making a total of eight; ten counting Mira and I. "You're **late** rookies!" I now learned the identity of our deafening alarm clock; a Loudred. And he didn't choose to be any quieter in this instance.

Morgan squawked and covered his ears. "Quiet! Please be quiet! Your voice is ridiculously loud, Alex!" Morgan's vehemence silenced the Loudred right away. All Alex did was grumble to himself under his breath, just enough so Morgan could obviously not hear. He took a short look around the room, eying the lines; of which Mira and I just joined. "Everyone seems to be present. Very well, allow us to proceed to the morning address." He hopped back towards Guildmaster's door and knocked with his beak; "Guildmaster! The Guild is in full attendance!" And just as he'd finished, Byron yanked open the door, an absurd smile still adorning his face; while Morgan was actually a bit startled. "T-Thank you Guildmaster! Now, please address the crew." He shrugged off his astonishment with a smile. But when there was nothing but silence following his words, he cocked a brow. "Ummm..." He hopped in front of Byron "Sir, are you well?" Byron's eyes were wide open, but his mouth was opening and closing as if breathing deeply in sleep; a snore to back it up.

I nudged Mira. "He's asleep with his eyes open...? What's with this?" I looked back at her, feeling a bit... perturbed.

She quietly nodded her head. "That's creepy..." She looked to her left and to her right as she said this; I understood her meaning of it and just nodded. "Turn around, I think Morgan's giving up on trying to wake him up." I did so, and saw Morgan turn back to the group almost simultaneously.

"Well, thank you Guildmaster for your words of... erm... wisdom!" The obviously concerned Chatot put an awkward smile on his face that I could see through like glass; he was just as perturbed as I. "Now let's not forget our morning cheers~! Everyone now~!"

Obviously, Alex was best heard over everyone else, but at least this time the words were intelligible; "One! Don't shirk work! Two! Run away and pay! Three! Smiles go for miles!" The middle of the three terms eluded me a bit, but I grasped a generic idea after a bit of thinking. Morgan dismissed everyone, and they went off to different areas of the guild with cheerful demeanor.

"So uhh... Mira...?" I began rather nervously. I looked around, wide-eyed and awkward, wondering if we would even be instructed on what to do. "Do you have any idea what we need to do?"

Mira looked no less nervous than I, and she shook her head gently. "I don't know either. I thought we would be introduced and given, like, a study buddy or something..."

"You two!" Morgan called out from near the ladder to the first sub-level. "I see you're quite confused, so allow me to serve as a guide. Come along, up the ladder and I'll give you your first assignment~!" I looked back at Mira and shrugged; found that study buddy. She smiled at me and giggled a bit, making me grin; I patted her on the back and offered for her to go first. She did so with a thanking smile and I followed.

She got on the ladder and started to climb; but on the fourth step she lost her footing. "Whoops!" She tumbled backwards and fell right on top of me, knocking me off the ladder and dropping us back to the floor. She sat for a second, stunned; perched on her haunches atop my chest "Oh my goodness, Nick! I'm so sorry! How clumsy of me!" She clambered off in a haste, and I just blinked once or twice then let out a short breath. "Are you alright?"

I immediately looked over at her and made a short laugh. "I'm fine, I'm just laughing at how worried you are about me. Don't worry about it; accidents happen, Mira." I pushed myself up off of the ground and gave her a quick hug. "Now come on, lets get up there and meet Morgan." She blushed momentarily, trying to hide it at the last second; but followed with a nod and started up the ladder again, this time in a more cautious manner. _"She must be really nervous to lose balance on the ladder like that, I hope she doesn't get too worried. There's got to be something I can do to make her feel more comfortable."_ I continued thinking until we reached Morgan's position on our right after stepping off the ladder.

"Ah, I was wondering what was keeping you two. Come, stand over here." He directed us towards a board with a flex of his right wing; we followed his direction and stood before him. "You two are rookies, so we'll have you start you off here." He hopped to the side a bit and let his wing point at the board behind him. "This is the job bulletin board. Pokemon from various regions have their plights and cries for help posted here. As such, you are aware of the masses of more sinister Pokemon amassing around the region?"

Mira mentioned something about this the other day, so naturally she was inclined to answer posthaste. "Mhmm. Because the flow of time is going off track, it's wreaking havoc which is making some of the Pokemon go off hinge, right?"

I was incredulous to her words, I could imagine the idea of time falling apart. _"I thought time was intangible. How can it be going off course? It's supposed to be the only perfection. No less, how does it even remotely influence the minds of Pokemon? My brain. It hurts. Need. Medicine."_ From that point forward, I was more confused than I had been when I woke up on the beach as a butt-flamed, orange, fire-breathing-lizard to a green dinosaur with a leaf growing out of its head yelling at me in English.

Morgan nodded in slight; "Precisely. Time's disorientation is somehow causing an outbreak of criminal activity and as such, we have noticed a significant increase in the amount of jobs we have posted on these boards." He adjusted his footing a bit and looked out of the window to his right and my left; the sun was gleaming down on the area and not a cloud was to be seen today. A refreshingly gentle breeze whipped through the window, alluding to relative calm despite the supposed outbreaks. "It also seems that the disorientation of time has led to a distinct increase in the number of Mystery Dungeons."

No more was I to stifle my questions, I found this latest announcement to be enough for me to respond with a query. "Before you go on, Morgan, what's a Mystery Dungeon?"

He opened his beak to respond, but was cut off by Mira. "I guess I didn't tell you yesterday, well, okay! Remember how we got my Relic Fragment back yesterday from that Koffing and Zubat?" I nodded in a simple response, signifying she could continue. "Well, the place we got it back from was a Mystery Dungeon. Places like it change _every_ time you enter it; different layouts, items and such whenever you visit one! If you're defeated in one, generally, you lose half of the money and items you've collected and you're warped back outside." This was confusing. I think part of my cerebral cortex exploded. "I know, it's weird," she pressed further, "but that's how it goes. Rumor has it that one of the Arceus makes the changes,. It's actually quite interesting; because that means you can never clean them out of treasure!"

"That's... confusing, to say the least. But I guess rather than trying to decipher it right now, I should just remember that little bit of information. Thanks, Mira." One thing further that I do remember, is that I'm always trying to understand things like this. Probably a part of my problem, I need to focus on getting my memory back, first.

Morgan chuckled at my confusion. "Why Mira, you're quite informed, aren't you? Thank you for explaining that, I'm sure you did a better job than even I would have~!" His smile was light in heart, and definitely alluded that he wasn't laughing at me to be insulting. It must be general knowledge around here, then. "So, that coverage makes things much easier for me to further explain!" He hardly took a second of a pause before resuming. "Jobs almost always take place in Mystery Dungeons, so expect to be visiting them often~! So..." He turned to face the board behind him and started skimming across the many papers pinned to it. "Let's find a job for you to undertake~!" He reached a sheet near the bottom and took it off of the board. "Maybe this will do?"

Mira and I nodded in thanks as I accepted the paper from Morgan's wing-claws.  
>"What does it say, Nick?"<p>

I scanned it quickly and gathered one simple fact, and probably an excuse to not read. "Oh, it's written by a girl, I can't do girl voices. Here you go Mira." This earned me an amused glare from Mira. I grinned playfully in response, which made her giggle a bit.

"Oh fine, you pestilential lizard," she whipped her leaf to the side a little, as it was falling over her other eye and began to read. "Dear Exploration Team; My name is Sara! Some dastardly outlaw has taken afoot with my dearest possession; my ever prized pink pearl! That pearl is life itself to me! Without it perched in its proper place upon my head, I cannot settle. However, I have heard my pearl was recently sighted! Apparently, hidden away deep inside a rocky bluff. I would go get it myself, but I am already extremely disoriented without my pearl; no less, the bluff is deemed dangerous! I have never been a fighter, and I could not go someplace that is dangerous like that! Oh dear exploration team; would you be so kind as to retrieve my pearl from this bluff? I honestly beg for your help! Regards, Sara Truman." Mira just looked at the paper for a second, then her face turned from excited to let down; her next words were quite vehement. "So all we're doing is playing fetch with an item someone _dropped_?"

I glanced over at Morgan, who was not in the least bit pleased. I looked around the room awkwardly, not involving myself too deeply. "Uhh... Mira...? Calm down...?"

"I'm completely calm!" She shouted at me, making such an obvious contradiction to her words it almost seemed familiar. "I'd just rather go on a bigger adventure that that. Like look for rare treasures in unknown locations! That's way more exciting!"

Morgan passed boiling point and stopped her as quickly as she'd begun. "Hush!" Mira immediately realized exactly what she'd said and grew rather embarrassed, flinching at Morgan's order. "It is imperative that you rookies pay your dues! Now pay attention! I'll repeat these warnings once more to assure they stick!" Mira gulped, and I just smiled like an idiot. "You'll be forced out of a dungeon and sent _directly_ back to the crossroads if _either_ of you is knocked out. You _will_ lose half of your load of both items and money. So you had better not be so arrogant inside the dungeons! Is that clear?" Mira's lip quivered as she nodded, thoroughly embarrassed now, obviously wanting to apologize; I did the same but without the quiver or nervousness. "Mira, you should not have to apologize for speaking out of turn; just please do not let it happen again. So long as you're at this guild, you must do the jobs posted; and do not complain if you don't get to explore new places, eventually, you will. Just be patient."

"Um, okay s-" Morgan hushed her again, this time more gently. "Okay."

"Now then," he continued, "if you have understood all of that, I suggest you head out for the job." He smiled oddly at Mira and I, enforcing his order with it and a wave of his wing.

**Drenched Bluff; Outside:** "I really wanted to make a discovery..." Mira mused out loud as we approached the bluff. "Stupid rules... Why can't we choose our own jobs?"

I rolled my eyes with a gentle look on my face. "We're new, Mira. We have to work to get to the more difficult jobs, even I know that. I bet some of these places are _really_ dangerous, and he's assigning us something easy to keep us safe. We have no credit at the guild; so we'll have to start out at the bottom." I patted her on the back reassuringly and cast a tangible warmth her way by waving my tail and an intangible warmth via facial expression.

Mira sighed, nodding in response. "I guess you're right... But it would have been _sooooo_ fun!"

"I agree it would have been, but for now, let's just power through what we need to; what do you say?" I looked at her and smiled gently.

Mira looked back at me with quite a bit of interest. "So long as I get to be by your side as we do." She looked back at the road and continued on, while I stopped. Those words had a ring to them that left me confused; I felt like I missed something in them, something important. She turned around, noticing the lack of my presence. "What's the matter? We're here now; _you_ aren't nervous, are you?"

"Hmm?' I unwrapped myself from my thoughts. "Oh! No, I was just thinking." I looked up and saw minimal light breaking through the area where we stood; with a few palm trees dressing the entrance to the bluff, the sun was scarce and left spots of light here and there. The scene was dramatic, it left me at peace, considering the comfortable temperature in the shade and the breeze flowing through. "Quite the entrance..." I said slowly, gazing up for a few seconds. "Well then, let's review the mission before we go in." I opened up the treasure bag and pulled out the note from Sara. "Looks like we have to go down to the seventh level. Let's watch it; try to handle the water types if you can, she did say it's kinda dangerous."

Mira smiled, once again rejuvenated in manners of excitement. "I'll do my best! You best not do any different, you pestilential lizard." She winked at me, reminding me of what I had said earlier during Morgan's briefing. Of course, I smirked and bowed a bit to her before we finally entered.

**Drenched Bluff; Inside:** "Okay Nick, you take the special band, I'll take the blue bow." Mira instructed, digging around in the treasure bag. The inner sanctum of the bluff was actually quite bright, with gaps in the ceiling where rocks had degraded, allowing light to flow in and flood the area with luminescent waters; making the seemingly bleak interior that much better. Mira found the item she was looking for and tossed it out of the treasure bag.

I snatched the item from the air, and wrapped the band around my tail. "Hehe, check it out, I've got butt streamers." I wriggled my tail like a snake and watched as the two loose ends whipped through the air. "So this thing boost Special Attack; does that mean my ga-"

"Nick! Gross!" She batted me on the head with her leaf, which was felt surprisingly well felt. I could hear her just giggling in the treasure bag as she looked for the blue bow. "Just your special _attacks_ you puerile Charmander; nothing further." She finally pulled her head from the bag with the bow tied at the base of her thin leaf; the actual bow facing backwards and loose, the usually intertwined parts flowing free like tails on a bandanna.

"Well now, I never thought a bow could be worn so nicely." I eyed the garment curiously, actually finding her to look that much better with it on. "I like it!"

"Really?" Her eyes widened with warmth, the compliment having sunk in rather deep. "And your, erm... butt streamers are very... classy?"

"I'll put it somewhere more practical, it might get burned back there; and it's actually pretty nice looking." I quickly undid the band and tied it around my right fist, making a sort of glove out of it. I'd seen a member of the guild with something like that; I couldn't help but take the idea for my own. I tied it at the wrist and moved my fingers. "There we go. Now I could probably put something in here to make my physical attacks better too. What do you think?"

"You look like a member of the Marowak Dojo back in Treasure Town; they wear those to keep from injuring their knuckles in training." She looked over it with an eye of scrutiny, and a high degree of interest. "It's pretty cool looking, I think! Maybe you c-" Mira paused mid sentence and got into a defensive position; her stance wide and eyes pivoting. "I heard something. We should get moving, remember, this place is supposed to be dangerous."

I snickered and rolled my eyes, "I haven't seen a thing since we got here, Mira. But you do know the area better than I do, so I'll follow your lead."

"That's fine, now you go ahead of me; I'll cover your back." She eased herself and cocked her head to one side; telling me to start on the path on my left.

"Just watch the ta-" I leapt back at the sight of something that was right behind me. "Holy sweet mother of-! Wait, an Anorith...?" My surprise faded into disappointment looked down at the shrimp crawling towards me; its claws swishing. "Oh yeah, so scary." I aimed a scratch attack at the Anorith, which did not go down in a single hit and tried to slice at one of my legs. "Little..."

Before I could aim another attack, Mira barreled at it and slammed into it with a tackle. It went down now, and disappeared from where it had been. "That one was a little tougher than you thought, hmm?"

"I'm just warming up. Next one of those little Anorith that tries to eat my foot is calamari," I adjusted the makeshift glove and smirked.

Mira cocked a brow at me. "Calamari is made from squid. And they're shrimp. And don't be so arrogant, remember what Morgan said." She nudged me gently with her side and gave me a look.

I froze in adjusting the glove and just looked off into the non-existent distance. "Right. Well then, shall we go n- Ooh! An interesting seed!"

Mira was hardly impressed with me as I walked off to pick up the item on the cave floor. "Low attention span much?"

"No, I just think this could be useful." I looked at the seed for a second, then I realized something. "Hey, isn't this that Heal Seed you mentioned yesterday in the beach cave? Looks like it _will_ come in handy, eh?" I dropped it into the treasure bag and started back on the way I'd been heading.

"If you get hit with something like thunder wave or will-o-wisp; it only heals status problems." She elaborated further on the use, and tagged along behind me with an edgy gait. Throughout the remainder of the floor, we encountered two more Pokemon - both of which being Lileep – and two items – a pecha berry and a stun seed; and the stairwell was merely two rooms from where we'd entered. The next floor was even easier; one Lileep that I took down in one shot, and we found a pile of stones that Mira told me to pick up.

"Why do we need rocks?" I extended the pile of rubble out to her in incredulity.

"Those are called Geo Pebbles; they're magnetically charged stones that can home in on enemies in a room. I can see the stairs from here, but we can try them on the next floor probably." She nudged my arms back and inclined for me to keep them. "Put them in the front pocket of the treasure bag, they'll be easier to get to that way."

I shrugged and put the five stones away in the designated pocket, proceeding down the stone steps to the next floor with hardly any confidence in the rocks. We cleared the next floor without encountering a single feral. "Next floor, we'll see if these rocks can actually home in on anything." Going down the steps to the next floor, I almost slipped on a damp spot, but Mira managed to catch me before I tumbled down them. The fall looked painful... "Um, I think karma's trying to kill me."

"Maybe the dungeon can read your mind. Trust me on those Geo Pebbles, though; I promise they work." She let me back up, happily so, and we got to the next floor unscathed. I took two steps in the room and already there were two Anorith skittering our way. I decided to test Mira's words for myself; so I pulled out the stones from the pocket and hurled one to the side of one Anorith. To my utter surprise, it arched perfectly into its target; which didn't go down in one shot, so I hurled another stone which took it out this time. Mira took it upon herself to fire a Razor Leaf at the other one that remained untouched; knocking it out instantly. "You see? Told you about those Geo Pebbles."

"And I am officially eating my words. This is probably the coolest piece of useless junk I have come across in the past two days of new life." I was going to enjoy using these while they lasted – though the floor was empty for the remainder of our walk on it. Up the stairs to the next floor was another Lileep and two items. I was overdramataic in my throwing of the two stones it took to defeat the Lileep (enjoyable to say the least), and picked up the two items – an Oran berry and a Red Gummi. "Candy? Who drops a perfectly good piece of candy?"  
>"Actually, that isn't candy." I cocked a brow and put the gummi in her face to see if she could actually see it. "Yes, I am telling you that red thing in your hand isn't really candy. It tastes like it, looks like it and smells like it; but it is not. It's good for the brain!"<p>

"Candy that's good for you? What..." I began to scrutinize the item, looking at it. I froze, then let my other arm fall to my side, only to be brought back up instantly, so that I may point at it; I remembered something. I cast a gaze at Mira, my brow still up. "This is a jelly bean. A giant jelly bean, but a jelly bean no less. How is it good for you?"

All I saw Mira do was shrug, and yet again the meaning of some things here eluded me completely. "It just is. That's a red gummi, so it's going to taste like cherry candy; that one's best for fire types like you! I eat Grass Gummi's and they taste like green apples; I can say that it _has_ increased my learning capacity. Just one more odd thing in this world you'll have to grow used to."

I was still incredulous, but again, Mira _lives_ here. I have to take her word for it. "I'm not complaining, really. I'm just confused. I think I might save this for when I get back to t-"

"They're best eaten _inside_ a Mystery Dungeon. The weird atmosphere actually boosts what you get out of it; aaaaand I want to see your reaction," Mira snickered.

"Oh fine then," I bit down on the gummi and ate it rather slowly. "Dang this tastes good! It's got a bit of sourness to it, too!"

"Now will you take my word for it on _more_ that exists in this world? I promise I won't lie to you, even in a joke," she assured me.

I nodded, swallowing the gummi as I did so. "I will. I'm just really out of place here, I guess. Come on, let's go and finish this mission, the sun's reaching its zenith and Sara needs her pearl back." I waved her along with a tilt of my head, and we were off yet again.

The remainder of the dungeon was merely repetition. Another type of Pokemon started showing up on the fifth floor down – Chingling – and after clearing a room of a few of them on the sixth floor, I happened across another Oran Berry. "Well, I got stung a few times back there; I'm going to eat this, okay?"

"O- Wait a second, that's not an Oran Berry! Look on the side, what's that pink spot?" Mira stopped me from popping the berry into my mouth by swatting it from my hands. "That's a lookalike item. It does strange things to you when you eat it. I don't know exactly what, but my mom used to always tell me to never eat them. Put it in the bag anyways, maybe we can ask Morgan what it does later on."

"Well, alright Mira." I plucked the berry off of the ground where it had fallen to and dropped it into one of the outer pockets of the Treasure Bag with the other berries. "Let's get down the stairs, I think this is the last floor." I led her down the flight, and at the base of the stairs there was an elongated hallway with some peaceful waterfalls at the end. We traversed it to the end, and just before the settling – and not to mention shimmering - tide pools that reflected the sunlight that fell in from above. Small fish darted to and fro in the glassy waters, leaving bubbles in their wake every time they made a jolt of movement. The silent serenity of the area was only broken by the smallest dripping and the muted rushing falls that fell across several small, stone steps on either side of the center most point. This center point had a simple fountain in it, which forced water out in a tiny geyser. "Wow..." I took in the elegance of the area, letting my eyes indulge in the silent soliloquy the waters recited; one that could only be used for this scene. "You think someone made this, Mira? It looks crafted."

Mira nodded. "This looks just like one of the drawings in my favorite book. It was supposed to have been made by the original settlers of this area, all of them being where the majority of Treasure Town residents hail from. Byron is one of those descendants, I know; and so is the whole of the family that runs the Marowak Dojo. I also think Mrs. Cypress is from their line as well... Oh!" She changed the subjact rather easily, and pointed downwind at a pink item near the edge of the pool. "That must be Sara's pearl! That was much easier than I thought! Aww..." She seemed let down by the simplicity of the mission.

"Oh well, maybe tomorrow Morgan will give us a cooler and more difficult job. I'll be glad to pay these Anorith good riddance anyways." I walked over to the egde of the pool and fiddled around in the water for a bit before retrieving the pearl. I was amazed by how warm this water was! "Say Mira, are we near the equator or something?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah! We're only a few hundred miles from it, why do you ask?"

"This water is wonderful! I would love to go for a swim someti- Oh dang it." I remained crouched over by the water's edge, and only now hung my head. "I can't do that. If this flame goes out, I die. And leaping in a pool of water would put it out for sure."

"Awww... That's no good... I'll try to see if I can find a solution. It's pretty rare to have a fire type like you want to swim, but I have seen it. So maybe someone else has already developed a way to allow that." Mira shrugged, but reassured me with a smile as I looked back.

"Well, alright. Let's get out of here then." I picked up the pearl from the ground and put it gently in the largest pocket of the treasure bag. "Erm, do we just go back the way we came...?"

Mira giggled at me playfully. "No silly, we use the explorer badges! They can warp us out at any time we please! Just shine it on yourself and you'll be taken straight back to the guild."

"Oh, alright then." I did as she had instructed, and immediately I felt a weightless falling sensation.

**Wigglytuff Guild:** "Gah!" I exclaimed as I toppled backwards and dropped the treasure bag. "Ugh... That warping's going to take a little getting used to." I had only begun picking up the few items that had fallen out when I toppled over, when Mira plopped on her belly right beside me.

She made a grunt as she hit the ground, and daintily brushed herself off with her leaf. "Well that was more than I expected. I see you fared no better."

I looked up at her as I was picking something up, then looked back down to return to the item I was getting. I smirked and replaced the item in the bag. "It was a bit of a rush. Rather quick and the landing was completely unexpected. Good thing I know how to land next time."

"Yeah, I certainly hope so." She poked me with a foreleg and flipped her leaf to one side of her face again. "Let's get back to Morgan and let him know we got Sara's pearl back."

"Good idea." I slung the Treasure bag over my shoulder again and we both returned to the first sub-level of the Guild. And to our surprise, there was the young Sara Truman bouncing in a confused manner near the bulletin board; Morgan nearby to help her maintain balance. He noticed our approach and pointed us out to Sara. "Yup, we got it. Safe and sound!" I puled the pink pearl from the bag and held it, outstretched to Sara.

She let out an excited gasp before scooping it up onto her head, where it balanced in a little nook between her ears. "Ohh, thank you kind explorers Nick and Mira! Morgan spoke highly of you two while you were gone, and I've worked out a payment amount as a reward! Seeing as that pearl absolutely _must_ be perched on my head, it is worth so very much! But I am limited in what I can give you; here, take these items and two-thousand poke'; I owe even this to you for ending my drawn out – and rather painful - nightmare!" I saw no hands on her whatsoever, so I even wondered how she could bounce and keep that pearl place; no less, how she could carry items. And to my astonishment, I found out how. From behind her levitated the promised items. "The red ones are Protein and Calcium drinks, while the grey one is an Iron drink! And the money is self explanatory."

Mira eyed the money with intrigue; "Wow! And this is all ours?"

"Of course!" Sara smiled, her eyes closing in a cheerful manner. "Like I said, it's meager in comparison to the value of my precious pearl! Please, do invest wisely! In these turbulent times, that is the best you can do! Once again, thank you!" Her words said and pearl in the right place, Sara bounced off nimbly up the ladder. That in itself was impressive.

"Oh wow, Nick! We're rich so suddenly! We can start a great bank account once we get the chance to!" Mira was beyond excited and could have started dancing. For some reason though, I was not nearly as excited as she.

"Brilliant job, team!" Morgan smiled slyly, and I saw it coming. "How do hand over the money, if you please!"

"Wait, what?" I asked, assuming this was not a request, but an order.

"Well, most of the money from jobs goes to the Guildmaster, you see! He needs it to keep the food supply stocked among other things. So, your share comes out to... this much." Morgan counted out the money and only returned to us two-_hundred_ poke'. "I'm sorry, but those are the rules. All the other teams have to abide by them all the same; that includes me, if I happen to go on a job."

"Oh darn..." Mira was let down once more; she had truly assumed too much from this guild. But I cannot help but feel her pain, it is a little unfair we only get ten percent of the whole payout. "Well, okay. As long as it goes to help the guild, that's fine!"

"That's more like it!" Morgan cheered, his note-shaped feather swaying from side to side, pleased. "Now do go wait in your bunk room, the Chimecho you saw at this morning's briefing, Charnelle, will have dinner ready for the apprentices in a few moments."

"Sir, yes sir." I made a mock salute, slightly amusing Morgan in the process, and off Mira and I were to our room.

"Hey Mira; what do you guys generally eat around here? In Treasure Town, I mean." Food was easily the first thing on my mind, as I'd been hungry for the majority of the day. Thankfully, as a Pokemon, my hunger tolerance is very high. I was only now starting to feel the effects of today's labor; if it could be called such.

"Well," she began rather simply, "it's generally hearty fruit from the surrounding area. There isn't much meat around here, only because of the lack of cattle and such. But we do get it on occasion at the Keckleon Market. I know Charmander and its evolutions are primarily carnivores." She seems to know everything I ask, it's actually very impressive and _very_ fortunate. "But I think you're stuck on fruit diets until we get a bigger name in the guild."

"Well, crap. In all my musings of hunger, I remembered that I was a general carnivore as a human, too. But I liked a lot of fruit too, and tons of vegetables." I yawned once, rather tired from my first day on the job here at the guild. "Maybe I'll ask Morgan if I can g-" My chat about food was interrupted by a prevailing yet soothing ring that reverberated across the entire guild, it seemed.

"Everyone!" I heard a gentle, feminine voice call out. "Thank you so much for waiting! Dinner's ready, some come and get it!" I heard a cheer echo across the entire bottom floor, and the rushing of excited footsteps.

"Good news! Come on Mira, let's eat!" I tore off down the corridor as quickly as I could, Mira in hot pursuit.

"Wait up!" It was a bit too late, we'd beaten everyone else to the dining hall. How I even knew where it was eluded me, but I couldn't care less. "You are really fast for your species, you know that?"

"I am?" I grinned and chuckled a bit seeing her take a deep breath. "Well, I guess I know one of my better stats. Come on, let's go down to the far end." I led her to the last two fruit platters on the right side of the beaten oak table.

"I'm going to take the one farthest down. It has more of my favorite fruit, than the other one; I doubt you like Kiwi much, it's very soppy." She seemed to hop aside and take residence before that plate.

"Did you say Kiwi? That's actually my favorite too!" The memory had come back to me back in the bunks, and I was surprised to learn I shared it with Mira. "But no, you enjoy your platter. You deserve it after today." I hugged her with a single arm, which she returned with her leaf.

"That's so sweet of you. Thanks, Nick." Within minutes, everyone had settled at the table and, upon Morgan's say so, they began to dig into their fruit; Mira and I were only to follow example and do the same.

After everyone had eaten, they departed to their respective bunk rooms. Mira and I were the last to reach ours and finally settle in. "Hey Nick..." Mira said after a few minutes. "About earlier, when I was all down about not getting an amazing first assignment... Thank you so much for trying to cheer me up. It really means a lot to me that someone would do that. I've been living on my own for five years now, my mother left one day when I was ten and never came back home... And since then, I've been really cautious and wary. And... It was getting really lonely after the first year or two. I made some friends after a while, and we had our own pseudo-exploration team, but... They disappeared too. And since then, I sort of doubt my own luck as well."

I didn't know what to say; her opening up about her past was very sudden. "M-Mira... That's awful... I'm so sorry." I scooted over to her bed and sat right by her, hugging her at the side yet again.

"No, I'm long over it. I always wanted to join the guild, really, so I could possibly make new friends and find out what happened to all those who disappeared. I have a very strange feeling it all has to do with my Relic Fragment. Because all of this started happening the week following my meeting with that Lapras on the beach. She gave it to me, she and her eldest daughter." She leaned her head on my side and looked up at me. "But I was always so scared. Ever since my friends went missing, I never had the courage to join the guild. I don't even know why I was _really_ afraid."

"This all sounds rather complicated. I will say that that pattern on your Relic Fragment sparked part of my memory... It was really familiar, and I myself feel it's tied to something important." I looked into her eyes and noticed something more in her gaze than thanks, but withdrew nervously, honestly unaware of the true emotions she held in her ruby-red irises. "I promise, I'll help you find your friends and your mother, as well as solve - not get an idea - _solve_ the mystery of your Relic Fragment."

"Oh thank you!" She tackled me playfully and hugged me as tight as she could within her quadrupedal frame. "Nick, you're possibly the greatest friend I've ever had! We'll be the best exploration team ever, and once we find my friends, they're all going to be a great big part of it!" She continued going on in happiness about how great it would be, but only a few minutes in, she let out a big yawn. "Oh, jeez, I'm so tired but I hardly noticed. I have this happy thought, and the great thanks of Sara to let me sleep perfectly tonight. Goodnight, new best friend. Let's start our quest for greatness as soon as Morgan sets us loose tomorrow~!"

I put a fist in the air - the gloved right fist – in a manner of agreement. "Team Ace, let that name be heard in the heavens! I'm with you, every step of the way; best friend. Now goodnight, we need our rest for our ascent to the top." I hugged her back and returned to my bed. I curled up and put my tail far enough off to prevent a fire; but that's when I remembered this journal!

It's late. Not as late as yesterday, despite how much longer today's entry is. I'm getting used to this lifestyle exceedingly fast, and it is really fun. Mira and everyone else are so nice, not to mention good at teaching me how to survive, heh. I would have probably been tripping and fainting like a wuss if I hadn't been met by Mira. And the guild? Well, it gives me a home and a structure to practice life like this! I hope I get to stay this way for a long time... And I really would love to fulfill my promise to Mira. I need to do that quickly, before I get sucked back to whatever place I came from before.

**Late Addition:** I adore the fact I ended up as a Charmander! These claws I have are so useful; from attacks to writing this entry, they are so versatile! Yet besides, they look beyond cool. Well, either way, I need to get myself to sleep; I certainly cannot help Mira solve her mysteries if I'm exhausted.

But this feeling I have... Of familiarity of her Relic Fragment, like I'm missing someone near to me, and that somehow, all of this is much bigger than I can imagine... Something is... bothering me, but I don't know what...


	2. Day 1

========================================  
>Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky<br>Chronological Event Journal; Day 1: First Assignments

**Day 1: Wigglytuff Guild**

This morning was hardly even peaceful awakening; at first I thought I was waking up from a dream I had been having. But then came the realization that someone was shouting at me. "Hey! You two, **rise and shine!**"

I shuddered and moved my jaw to try and get the pain from the volume to fade; fleetingly so. _"Ugh... My ears... I think they broke..."_I mused in agony; at this point it sounded as if an explosion was going off in my ears.

That same voice cried out again, further damaging my hearing. Whatever he was saying, I could not interpret any further, excluding the occasional quieter word; and even then it was very difficult to understand as my ears had started ringing. Loudly. Finally, the shouting stopped and whoever it was walked out of the room as if nothing had happened. I could barely hear Mira's first utterance, but after a few more seconds, I began to gather what she was saying more easily. "I could not understand him at all... Did he say something about- Oh my goodness! We overslept! I just remembered we signed up at as apprentices here yesterday! But that means..."

"Crap! We're late!" I leapt to my feet, with quite the degree of agility despite my unfamiliarity with this body. "Come on Mira, let's go find the other apprentices!" I bolted, with her right beside me.

The main chamber on the second sub-level was filled by the current guild members; lined up in two rows of four; making a total of eight; ten counting Mira and I. "You're **late**rookies!" I now learned the identity of our deafening alarm clock; a Loudred. And he didn't choose to be any quieter in this instance.

Morgan squawked and covered his ears. "Quiet! Please be quiet! Your voice is ridiculously loud, Alex!" Morgan's vehemence silenced the Loudred right away. All Alex did was grumble to himself under his breath, just enough so Morgan could obviously not hear. He took a short look around the room, eying the lines; of which Mira and I just joined. "Everyone seems to be present. Very well, allow us to proceed to the morning address." He hopped back towards Guildmaster's door and knocked with his beak; "Guildmaster! The Guild is in full attendance!" And just as he'd finished, Byron yanked open the door, an absurd smile still adorning his face; while Morgan was actually a bit startled. "T-Thank you Guildmaster! Now, please address the crew." He shrugged off his astonishment with a smile. But when there was nothing but silence following his words, he cocked a brow. "Ummm..." He hopped in front of Byron "Sir, are you well?" Byron's eyes were wide open, but his mouth was opening and closing as if breathing deeply in sleep; a snore to back it up.

I nudged Mira. "He's asleep with his eyes open...? What's with this?" I looked back at her, feeling a bit... perturbed.

She quietly nodded her head. "That's creepy..." She looked to her left and to her right as she said this; I understood her meaning of it and just nodded. "Turn around, I think Morgan's giving up on trying to wake him up." I did so, and saw Morgan turn back to the group almost simultaneously.

"Well, thank you Guildmaster for your words of... erm... wisdom!" The obviously concerned Chatot put an awkward smile on his face that I could see through like glass; he was just as perturbed as I. "Now let's not forget our morning cheers~! Everyone now~!"

Obviously, Alex was best heard over everyone else, but at least this time the words were intelligible; "One! Don't shirk work! Two! Run away and pay! Three! Smiles go for miles!" The middle of the three terms eluded me a bit, but I grasped a generic idea after a bit of thinking. Morgan dismissed everyone, and they went off to different areas of the guild with cheerful demeanor.

"So uhh... Mira...?" I began rather nervously. I looked around, wide-eyed and awkward, wondering if we would even be instructed on what to do. "Do you have any idea what we need to do?"

Mira looked no less nervous than I, and she shook her head gently. "I don't know either. I thought we would be introduced and given, like, a study buddy or something..."

"You two!" Morgan called out from near the ladder to the first sub-level. "I see you're quite confused, so allow me to serve as a guide. Come along, up the ladder and I'll give you your first assignment~!" I looked back at Mira and shrugged; found that study buddy. She smiled at me and giggled a bit, making me grin; I patted her on the back and offered for her to go first. She did so with a thanking smile and I followed.

She got on the ladder and started to climb; but on the fourth step she lost her footing. "Whoops!" She tumbled backwards and fell right on top of me, knocking me off the ladder and dropping us back to the floor. She sat for a second, stunned; perched on her haunches atop my chest "Oh my goodness, Nick! I'm so sorry! How clumsy of me!" She clambered off in a haste, and I just blinked once or twice then let out a short breath. "Are you alright?"

I immediately looked over at her and made a short laugh. "I'm fine, I'm just laughing at how worried you are about me. Don't worry about it; accidents happen, Mira." I pushed myself up off of the ground and gave her a quick hug. "Now come on, lets get up there and meet Morgan." She blushed momentarily, trying to hide it at the last second; but followed with a nod and started up the ladder again, this time in a more cautious manner. _"She must be really nervous to lose balance on the ladder like that, I hope she doesn't get too worried. There's got to be something I can do to make her feel more comfortable."_I continued thinking until we reached Morgan's position on our right after stepping off the ladder.

"Ah, I was wondering what was keeping you two. Come, stand over here." He directed us towards a board with a flex of his right wing; we followed his direction and stood before him. "You two are rookies, so we'll have you start you off here." He hopped to the side a bit and let his wing point at the board behind him. "This is the job bulletin board. Pokemon from various regions have their plights and cries for help posted here. As such, you are aware of the masses of more sinister Pokemon amassing around the region?"

Mira mentioned something about this the other day, so naturally she was inclined to answer posthaste. "Mhmm. Because the flow of time is going off track, it's wreaking havoc which is making some of the Pokemon go off hinge, right?"

I was incredulous to her words, I could imagine the idea of time falling apart. _"I thought time was intangible. How can it be going off course? It's supposed to be the only perfection. No less, how does it even remotely influence the minds of Pokemon? My brain. It hurts. Need. Medicine."_From that point forward, I was more confused than I had been when I woke up on the beach as a butt-flamed, orange, fire-breathing-lizard to a green dinosaur with a leaf growing out of its head yelling at me in English.

Morgan nodded in slight; "Precisely. Time's disorientation is somehow causing an outbreak of criminal activity and as such, we have noticed a significant increase in the amount of jobs we have posted on these boards." He adjusted his footing a bit and looked out of the window to his right and my left; the sun was gleaming down on the area and not a cloud was to be seen today. A refreshingly gentle breeze whipped through the window, alluding to relative calm despite the supposed outbreaks. "It also seems that the disorientation of time has led to a distinct increase in the number of Mystery Dungeons."

No more was I to stifle my questions, I found this latest announcement to be enough for me to respond with a query. "Before you go on, Morgan, what's a Mystery Dungeon?"

He opened his beak to respond, but was cut off by Mira. "I guess I didn't tell you yesterday, well, okay! Remember how we got my Relic Fragment back yesterday from that Koffing and Zubat?" I nodded in a simple response, signifying she could continue. "Well, the place we got it back from was a Mystery Dungeon. Places like it change _every_time you enter it; different layouts, items and such whenever you visit one! If you're defeated in one, generally, you lose half of the money and items you've collected and you're warped back outside." This was confusing. I think part of my cerebral cortex exploded. "I know, it's weird," she pressed further, "but that's how it goes. Rumor has it that one of the Arceus makes the changes,. It's actually quite interesting; because that means you can never clean them out of treasure!"

"That's... confusing, to say the least. But I guess rather than trying to decipher it right now, I should just remember that little bit of information. Thanks, Mira." One thing further that I do remember, is that I'm always trying to understand things like this. Probably a part of my problem, I need to focus on getting my memory back, first.

Morgan chuckled at my confusion. "Why Mira, you're quite informed, aren't you? Thank you for explaining that, I'm sure you did a better job than even I would have~!" His smile was light in heart, and definitely alluded that he wasn't laughing at me to be insulting. It must be general knowledge around here, then. "So, that coverage makes things much easier for me to further explain!" He hardly took a second of a pause before resuming. "Jobs almost always take place in Mystery Dungeons, so expect to be visiting them often~! So..." He turned to face the board behind him and started skimming across the many papers pinned to it. "Let's find a job for you to undertake~!" He reached a sheet near the bottom and took it off of the board. "Maybe this will do?"

Mira and I nodded in thanks as I accepted the paper from Morgan's wing-claws.  
>"What does it say, Nick?"<p>

I scanned it quickly and gathered one simple fact, and probably an excuse to not read. "Oh, it's written by a girl, I can't do girl voices. Here you go Mira." This earned me an amused glare from Mira. I grinned playfully in response, which made her giggle a bit.

"Oh fine, you pestilential lizard," she whipped her leaf to the side a little, as it was falling over her other eye and began to read. "Dear Exploration Team; My name is Sara! Some dastardly outlaw has taken afoot with my dearest possession; my ever prized pink pearl! That pearl is life itself to me! Without it perched in its proper place upon my head, I cannot settle. However, I have heard my pearl was recently sighted! Apparently, hidden away deep inside a rocky bluff. I would go get it myself, but I am already extremely disoriented without my pearl; no less, the bluff is deemed dangerous! I have never been a fighter, and I could not go someplace that is dangerous like that! Oh dear exploration team; would you be so kind as to retrieve my pearl from this bluff? I honestly beg for your help! Regards, Sara Truman." Mira just looked at the paper for a second, then her face turned from excited to let down; her next words were quite vehement. "So all we're doing is playing fetch with an item someone _dropped_?"

I glanced over at Morgan, who was not in the least bit pleased. I looked around the room awkwardly, not involving myself too deeply. "Uhh... Mira...? Calm down...?"

"I'm completely calm!" She shouted at me, making such an obvious contradiction to her words it almost seemed familiar. "I'd just rather go on a bigger adventure that that. Like look for rare treasures in unknown locations! That's way more exciting!"

Morgan passed boiling point and stopped her as quickly as she'd begun. "Hush!" Mira immediately realized exactly what she'd said and grew rather embarrassed, flinching at Morgan's order. "It is imperative that you rookies pay your dues! Now pay attention! I'll repeat these warnings once more to assure they stick!" Mira gulped, and I just smiled like an idiot. "You'll be forced out of a dungeon and sent _directly_ back to the crossroads if _either_ of you is knocked out. You _will_lose half of your load of both items and money. So you had better not be so arrogant inside the dungeons! Is that clear?" Mira's lip quivered as she nodded, thoroughly embarrassed now, obviously wanting to apologize; I did the same but without the quiver or nervousness. "Mira, you should not have to apologize for speaking out of turn; just please do not let it happen again. So long as you're at this guild, you must do the jobs posted; and do not complain if you don't get to explore new places, eventually, you will. Just be patient."

"Um, okay s-" Morgan hushed her again, this time more gently. "Okay."

"Now then," he continued, "if you have understood all of that, I suggest you head out for the job." He smiled oddly at Mira and I, enforcing his order with it and a wave of his wing.

**Drenched Bluff; Outside:**"I really wanted to make a discovery..." Mira mused out loud as we approached the bluff. "Stupid rules... Why can't we choose our own jobs?"

I rolled my eyes with a gentle look on my face. "We're new, Mira. We have to work to get to the more difficult jobs, even I know that. I bet some of these places are _really_dangerous, and he's assigning us something easy to keep us safe. We have no credit at the guild; so we'll have to start out at the bottom." I patted her on the back reassuringly and cast a tangible warmth her way by waving my tail and an intangible warmth via facial expression.

Mira sighed, nodding in response. "I guess you're right... But it would have been _sooooo_fun!"

"I agree it would have been, but for now, let's just power through what we need to; what do you say?" I looked at her and smiled gently.

Mira looked back at me with quite a bit of interest. "So long as I get to be by your side as we do." She looked back at the road and continued on, while I stopped. Those words had a ring to them that left me confused; I felt like I missed something in them, something important. She turned around, noticing the lack of my presence. "What's the matter? We're here now; _you_aren't nervous, are you?"

"Hmm?' I unwrapped myself from my thoughts. "Oh! No, I was just thinking." I looked up and saw minimal light breaking through the area where we stood; with a few palm trees dressing the entrance to the bluff, the sun was scarce and left spots of light here and there. The scene was dramatic, it left me at peace, considering the comfortable temperature in the shade and the breeze flowing through. "Quite the entrance..." I said slowly, gazing up for a few seconds. "Well then, let's review the mission before we go in." I opened up the treasure bag and pulled out the note from Sara. "Looks like we have to go down to the seventh level. Let's watch it; try to handle the water types if you can, she did say it's kinda dangerous."

Mira smiled, once again rejuvenated in manners of excitement. "I'll do my best! You best not do any different, you pestilential lizard." She winked at me, reminding me of what I had said earlier during Morgan's briefing. Of course, I smirked and bowed a bit to her before we finally entered.

**Drenched Bluff; Inside:**"Okay Nick, you take the special band, I'll take the blue bow." Mira instructed, digging around in the treasure bag. The inner sanctum of the bluff was actually quite bright, with gaps in the ceiling where rocks had degraded, allowing light to flow in and flood the area with luminescent waters; making the seemingly bleak interior that much better. Mira found the item she was looking for and tossed it out of the treasure bag.

I snatched the item from the air, and wrapped the band around my tail. "Hehe, check it out, I've got butt streamers." I wriggled my tail like a snake and watched as the two loose ends whipped through the air. "So this thing boost Special Attack; does that mean my ga-"

"Nick! Gross!" She batted me on the head with her leaf, which was felt surprisingly well felt. I could hear her just giggling in the treasure bag as she looked for the blue bow. "Just your special _attacks_you puerile Charmander; nothing further." She finally pulled her head from the bag with the bow tied at the base of her thin leaf; the actual bow facing backwards and loose, the usually intertwined parts flowing free like tails on a bandanna.

"Well now, I never thought a bow could be worn so nicely." I eyed the garment curiously, actually finding her to look that much better with it on. "I like it!"

"Really?" Her eyes widened with warmth, the compliment having sunk in rather deep. "And your, erm... butt streamers are very... classy?"

"I'll put it somewhere more practical, it might get burned back there; and it's actually pretty nice looking." I quickly undid the band and tied it around my right fist, making a sort of glove out of it. I'd seen a member of the guild with something like that; I couldn't help but take the idea for my own. I tied it at the wrist and moved my fingers. "There we go. Now I could probably put something in here to make my physical attacks better too. What do you think?"

"You look like a member of the Marowak Dojo back in Treasure Town; they wear those to keep from injuring their knuckles in training." She looked over it with an eye of scrutiny, and a high degree of interest. "It's pretty cool looking, I think! Maybe you c-" Mira paused mid sentence and got into a defensive position; her stance wide and eyes pivoting. "I heard something. We should get moving, remember, this place is supposed to be dangerous."

I snickered and rolled my eyes, "I haven't seen a thing since we got here, Mira. But you do know the area better than I do, so I'll follow your lead."

"That's fine, now you go ahead of me; I'll cover your back." She eased herself and cocked her head to one side; telling me to start on the path on my left.

"Just watch the ta-" I leapt back at the sight of something that was right behind me. "Holy sweet mother of-! Wait, an Anorith...?" My surprise faded into disappointment looked down at the shrimp crawling towards me; its claws swishing. "Oh yeah, so scary." I aimed a scratch attack at the Anorith, which did not go down in a single hit and tried to slice at one of my legs. "Little..."

Before I could aim another attack, Mira barreled at it and slammed into it with a tackle. It went down now, and disappeared from where it had been. "That one was a little tougher than you thought, hmm?"

"I'm just warming up. Next one of those little Anorith that tries to eat my foot is calamari," I adjusted the makeshift glove and smirked.

Mira cocked a brow at me. "Calamari is made from squid. And they're shrimp. And don't be so arrogant, remember what Morgan said." She nudged me gently with her side and gave me a look.

I froze in adjusting the glove and just looked off into the non-existent distance. "Right. Well then, shall we go n- Ooh! An interesting seed!"

Mira was hardly impressed with me as I walked off to pick up the item on the cave floor. "Low attention span much?"

"No, I just think this could be useful." I looked at the seed for a second, then I realized something. "Hey, isn't this that Heal Seed you mentioned yesterday in the beach cave? Looks like it _will_come in handy, eh?" I dropped it into the treasure bag and started back on the way I'd been heading.

"If you get hit with something like thunder wave or will-o-wisp; it only heals status problems." She elaborated further on the use, and tagged along behind me with an edgy gait. Throughout the remainder of the floor, we encountered two more Pokemon - both of which being Lileep – and two items – a pecha berry and a stun seed; and the stairwell was merely two rooms from where we'd entered. The next floor was even easier; one Lileep that I took down in one shot, and we found a pile of stones that Mira told me to pick up.

"Why do we need rocks?" I extended the pile of rubble out to her in incredulity.

"Those are called Geo Pebbles; they're magnetically charged stones that can home in on enemies in a room. I can see the stairs from here, but we can try them on the next floor probably." She nudged my arms back and inclined for me to keep them. "Put them in the front pocket of the treasure bag, they'll be easier to get to that way."

I shrugged and put the five stones away in the designated pocket, proceeding down the stone steps to the next floor with hardly any confidence in the rocks. We cleared the next floor without encountering a single feral. "Next floor, we'll see if these rocks can actually home in on anything." Going down the steps to the next floor, I almost slipped on a damp spot, but Mira managed to catch me before I tumbled down them. The fall looked painful... "Um, I think karma's trying to kill me."

"Maybe the dungeon can read your mind. Trust me on those Geo Pebbles, though; I promise they work." She let me back up, happily so, and we got to the next floor unscathed. I took two steps in the room and already there were two Anorith skittering our way. I decided to test Mira's words for myself; so I pulled out the stones from the pocket and hurled one to the side of one Anorith. To my utter surprise, it arched perfectly into its target; which didn't go down in one shot, so I hurled another stone which took it out this time. Mira took it upon herself to fire a Razor Leaf at the other one that remained untouched; knocking it out instantly. "You see? Told you about those Geo Pebbles."

"And I am officially eating my words. This is probably the coolest piece of useless junk I have come across in the past two days of new life." I was going to enjoy using these while they lasted – though the floor was empty for the remainder of our walk on it. Up the stairs to the next floor was another Lileep and two items. I was overdramataic in my throwing of the two stones it took to defeat the Lileep (enjoyable to say the least), and picked up the two items – an Oran berry and a Red Gummi. "Candy? Who drops a perfectly good piece of candy?"  
>"Actually, that isn't candy." I cocked a brow and put the gummi in her face to see if she could actually see it. "Yes, I am telling you that red thing in your hand isn't really candy. It tastes like it, looks like it and smells like it; but it is not. It's good for the brain!"<p>

"Candy that's good for you? What..." I began to scrutinize the item, looking at it. I froze, then let my other arm fall to my side, only to be brought back up instantly, so that I may point at it; I remembered something. I cast a gaze at Mira, my brow still up. "This is a jelly bean. A giant jelly bean, but a jelly bean no less. How is it good for you?"

All I saw Mira do was shrug, and yet again the meaning of some things here eluded me completely. "It just is. That's a red gummi, so it's going to taste like cherry candy; that one's best for fire types like you! I eat Grass Gummi's and they taste like green apples; I can say that it _has_increased my learning capacity. Just one more odd thing in this world you'll have to grow used to."

I was still incredulous, but again, Mira _lives_here. I have to take her word for it. "I'm not complaining, really. I'm just confused. I think I might save this for when I get back to t-"

"They're best eaten _inside_a Mystery Dungeon. The weird atmosphere actually boosts what you get out of it; aaaaand I want to see your reaction," Mira snickered.

"Oh fine then," I bit down on the gummi and ate it rather slowly. "Dang this tastes good! It's got a bit of sourness to it, too!"

"Now will you take my word for it on _more_that exists in this world? I promise I won't lie to you, even in a joke," she assured me.

I nodded, swallowing the gummi as I did so. "I will. I'm just really out of place here, I guess. Come on, let's go and finish this mission, the sun's reaching its zenith and Sara needs her pearl back." I waved her along with a tilt of my head, and we were off yet again.

The remainder of the dungeon was merely repetition. Another type of Pokemon started showing up on the fifth floor down – Chingling – and after clearing a room of a few of them on the sixth floor, I happened across another Oran Berry. "Well, I got stung a few times back there; I'm going to eat this, okay?"

"O- Wait a second, that's not an Oran Berry! Look on the side, what's that pink spot?" Mira stopped me from popping the berry into my mouth by swatting it from my hands. "That's a lookalike item. It does strange things to you when you eat it. I don't know exactly what, but my mom used to always tell me to never eat them. Put it in the bag anyways, maybe we can ask Morgan what it does later on."

"Well, alright Mira." I plucked the berry off of the ground where it had fallen to and dropped it into one of the outer pockets of the Treasure Bag with the other berries. "Let's get down the stairs, I think this is the last floor." I led her down the flight, and at the base of the stairs there was an elongated hallway with some peaceful waterfalls at the end. We traversed it to the end, and just before the settling – and not to mention shimmering - tide pools that reflected the sunlight that fell in from above. Small fish darted to and fro in the glassy waters, leaving bubbles in their wake every time they made a jolt of movement. The silent serenity of the area was only broken by the smallest dripping and the muted rushing falls that fell across several small, stone steps on either side of the center most point. This center point had a simple fountain in it, which forced water out in a tiny geyser. "Wow..." I took in the elegance of the area, letting my eyes indulge in the silent soliloquy the waters recited; one that could only be used for this scene. "You think someone made this, Mira? It looks crafted."

Mira nodded. "This looks just like one of the drawings in my favorite book. It was supposed to have been made by the original settlers of this area, all of them being where the majority of Treasure Town residents hail from. Byron is one of those descendants, I know; and so is the whole of the family that runs the Marowak Dojo. I also think Mrs. Cypress is from their line as well... Oh!" She changed the subjact rather easily, and pointed downwind at a pink item near the edge of the pool. "That must be Sara's pearl! That was much easier than I thought! Aww..." She seemed let down by the simplicity of the mission.

"Oh well, maybe tomorrow Morgan will give us a cooler and more difficult job. I'll be glad to pay these Anorith good riddance anyways." I walked over to the egde of the pool and fiddled around in the water for a bit before retrieving the pearl. I was amazed by how warm this water was! "Say Mira, are we near the equator or something?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah! We're only a few hundred miles from it, why do you ask?"

"This water is wonderful! I would love to go for a swim someti- Oh dang it." I remained crouched over by the water's edge, and only now hung my head. "I can't do that. If this flame goes out, I die. And leaping in a pool of water would put it out for sure."

"Awww... That's no good... I'll try to see if I can find a solution. It's pretty rare to have a fire type like you want to swim, but I have seen it. So maybe someone else has already developed a way to allow that." Mira shrugged, but reassured me with a smile as I looked back.

"Well, alright. Let's get out of here then." I picked up the pearl from the ground and put it gently in the largest pocket of the treasure bag. "Erm, do we just go back the way we came...?"

Mira giggled at me playfully. "No silly, we use the explorer badges! They can warp us out at any time we please! Just shine it on yourself and you'll be taken straight back to the guild."

"Oh, alright then." I did as she had instructed, and immediately I felt a weightless falling sensation.

**Wigglytuff Guild:**"Gah!" I exclaimed as I toppled backwards and dropped the treasure bag. "Ugh... That warping's going to take a little getting used to." I had only begun picking up the few items that had fallen out when I toppled over, when Mira plopped on her belly right beside me.

She made a grunt as she hit the ground, and daintily brushed herself off with her leaf. "Well that was more than I expected. I see you fared no better."

I looked up at her as I was picking something up, then looked back down to return to the item I was getting. I smirked and replaced the item in the bag. "It was a bit of a rush. Rather quick and the landing was completely unexpected. Good thing I know how to land next time."

"Yeah, I certainly hope so." She poked me with a foreleg and flipped her leaf to one side of her face again. "Let's get back to Morgan and let him know we got Sara's pearl back."

"Good idea." I slung the Treasure bag over my shoulder again and we both returned to the first sub-level of the Guild. And to our surprise, there was the young Sara Truman bouncing in a confused manner near the bulletin board; Morgan nearby to help her maintain balance. He noticed our approach and pointed us out to Sara. "Yup, we got it. Safe and sound!" I puled the pink pearl from the bag and held it, outstretched to Sara.

She let out an excited gasp before scooping it up onto her head, where it balanced in a little nook between her ears. "Ohh, thank you kind explorers Nick and Mira! Morgan spoke highly of you two while you were gone, and I've worked out a payment amount as a reward! Seeing as that pearl absolutely _must_be perched on my head, it is worth so very much! But I am limited in what I can give you; here, take these items and two-thousand poke'; I owe even this to you for ending my drawn out – and rather painful - nightmare!" I saw no hands on her whatsoever, so I even wondered how she could bounce and keep that pearl place; no less, how she could carry items. And to my astonishment, I found out how. From behind her levitated the promised items. "The red ones are Protein and Calcium drinks, while the grey one is an Iron drink! And the money is self explanatory."

Mira eyed the money with intrigue; "Wow! And this is all ours?"

"Of course!" Sara smiled, her eyes closing in a cheerful manner. "Like I said, it's meager in comparison to the value of my precious pearl! Please, do invest wisely! In these turbulent times, that is the best you can do! Once again, thank you!" Her words said and pearl in the right place, Sara bounced off nimbly up the ladder. That in itself was impressive.

"Oh wow, Nick! We're rich so suddenly! We can start a great bank account once we get the chance to!" Mira was beyond excited and could have started dancing. For some reason though, I was not nearly as excited as she.

"Brilliant job, team!" Morgan smiled slyly, and I saw it coming. "How do hand over the money, if you please!"

"Wait, what?" I asked, assuming this was not a request, but an order.

"Well, most of the money from jobs goes to the Guildmaster, you see! He needs it to keep the food supply stocked among other things. So, your share comes out to... this much." Morgan counted out the money and only returned to us two-_hundred_poke'. "I'm sorry, but those are the rules. All the other teams have to abide by them all the same; that includes me, if I happen to go on a job."

"Oh darn..." Mira was let down once more; she had truly assumed too much from this guild. But I cannot help but feel her pain, it is a little unfair we only get ten percent of the whole payout. "Well, okay. As long as it goes to help the guild, that's fine!"

"That's more like it!" Morgan cheered, his note-shaped feather swaying from side to side, pleased. "Now do go wait in your bunk room, the Chimecho you saw at this morning's briefing, Charnelle, will have dinner ready for the apprentices in a few moments."

"Sir, yes sir." I made a mock salute, slightly amusing Morgan in the process, and off Mira and I were to our room.

"Hey Mira; what do you guys generally eat around here? In Treasure Town, I mean." Food was easily the first thing on my mind, as I'd been hungry for the majority of the day. Thankfully, as a Pokemon, my hunger tolerance is very high. I was only now starting to feel the effects of today's labor; if it could be called such.

"Well," she began rather simply, "it's generally hearty fruit from the surrounding area. There isn't much meat around here, only because of the lack of cattle and such. But we do get it on occasion at the Keckleon Market. I know Charmander and its evolutions are primarily carnivores." She seems to know everything I ask, it's actually very impressive and _very_fortunate. "But I think you're stuck on fruit diets until we get a bigger name in the guild."

"Well, crap. In all my musings of hunger, I remembered that I was a general carnivore as a human, too. But I liked a lot of fruit too, and tons of vegetables." I yawned once, rather tired from my first day on the job here at the guild. "Maybe I'll ask Morgan if I can g-" My chat about food was interrupted by a prevailing yet soothing ring that reverberated across the entire guild, it seemed.

"Everyone!" I heard a gentle, feminine voice call out. "Thank you so much for waiting! Dinner's ready, some come and get it!" I heard a cheer echo across the entire bottom floor, and the rushing of excited footsteps.

"Good news! Come on Mira, let's eat!" I tore off down the corridor as quickly as I could, Mira in hot pursuit.

"Wait up!" It was a bit too late, we'd beaten everyone else to the dining hall. How I even knew where it was eluded me, but I couldn't care less. "You are really fast for your species, you know that?"

"I am?" I grinned and chuckled a bit seeing her take a deep breath. "Well, I guess I know one of my better stats. Come on, let's go down to the far end." I led her to the last two fruit platters on the right side of the beaten oak table.

"I'm going to take the one farthest down. It has more of my favorite fruit, than the other one; I doubt you like Kiwi much, it's very soppy." She seemed to hop aside and take residence before that plate.

"Did you say Kiwi? That's actually my favorite too!" The memory had come back to me back in the bunks, and I was surprised to learn I shared it with Mira. "But no, you enjoy your platter. You deserve it after today." I hugged her with a single arm, which she returned with her leaf.

"That's so sweet of you. Thanks, Nick." Within minutes, everyone had settled at the table and, upon Morgan's say so, they began to dig into their fruit; Mira and I were only to follow example and do the same.

After everyone had eaten, they departed to their respective bunk rooms. Mira and I were the last to reach ours and finally settle in. "Hey Nick..." Mira said after a few minutes. "About earlier, when I was all down about not getting an amazing first assignment... Thank you so much for trying to cheer me up. It really means a lot to me that someone would do that. I've been living on my own for five years now, my mother left one day when I was ten and never came back home... And since then, I've been really cautious and wary. And... It was getting really lonely after the first year or two. I made some friends after a while, and we had our own pseudo-exploration team, but... They disappeared too. And since then, I sort of doubt my own luck as well."

I didn't know what to say; her opening up about her past was very sudden. "M-Mira... That's awful... I'm so sorry." I scooted over to her bed and sat right by her, hugging her at the side yet again.

"No, I'm long over it. I always wanted to join the guild, really, so I could possibly make new friends and find out what happened to all those who disappeared. I have a very strange feeling it all has to do with my Relic Fragment. Because all of this started happening the week following my meeting with that Lapras on the beach. She gave it to me, she and her eldest daughter." She leaned her head on my side and looked up at me. "But I was always so scared. Ever since my friends went missing, I never had the courage to join the guild. I don't even know why I was _really_afraid."

"This all sounds rather complicated. I will say that that pattern on your Relic Fragment sparked part of my memory... It was really familiar, and I myself feel it's tied to something important." I looked into her eyes and noticed something more in her gaze than thanks, but withdrew nervously, honestly unaware of the true emotions she held in her ruby-red irises. "I promise, I'll help you find your friends and your mother, as well as solve - not get an idea - _solve_the mystery of your Relic Fragment."

"Oh thank you!" She tackled me playfully and hugged me as tight as she could within her quadrupedal frame. "Nick, you're possibly the greatest friend I've ever had! We'll be the best exploration team ever, and once we find my friends, they're all going to be a great big part of it!" She continued going on in happiness about how great it would be, but only a few minutes in, she let out a big yawn. "Oh, jeez, I'm so tired but I hardly noticed. I have this happy thought, and the great thanks of Sara to let me sleep perfectly tonight. Goodnight, new best friend. Let's start our quest for greatness as soon as Morgan sets us loose tomorrow~!"

I put a fist in the air - the gloved right fist – in a manner of agreement. "Team Ace, let that name be heard in the heavens! I'm with you, every step of the way; best friend. Now goodnight, we need our rest for our ascent to the top." I hugged her back and returned to my bed. I curled up and put my tail far enough off to prevent a fire; but that's when I remembered this journal!

It's late. Not as late as yesterday, despite how much longer today's entry is. I'm getting used to this lifestyle exceedingly fast, and it is really fun. Mira and everyone else are so nice, not to mention good at teaching me how to survive, heh. I would have probably been tripping and fainting like a wuss if I hadn't been met by Mira. And the guild? Well, it gives me a home and a structure to practice life like this! I hope I get to stay this way for a long time... And I really would love to fulfill my promise to Mira. I need to do that quickly, before I get sucked back to whatever place I came from before.

**Late Addition:**I adore the fact I ended up as a Charmander! These claws I have are so useful; from attacks to writing this entry, they are so versatile! Yet besides, they look beyond cool. Well, either way, I need to get myself to sleep; I certainly cannot help Mira solve her mysteries if I'm exhausted.

But this feeling I have... Of familiarity of her Relic Fragment, like I'm missing someone near to me, and that somehow, all of this is much bigger than I can imagine... Something is... bothering me, but I don't know what...


End file.
